Get Your Game Up. Lets Play!

Welcome to another Touchstone Tavern everyone, our weekly Hearthstone [Free] roundup. We put together the best stories and videos from last week, and it was a pretty good week. Knights of the Frozen Throne, the next expansion, is rapidly closing in, and even though we didn’t have any reveals this week (they start on the 24th), we still had some expansion-related talk. There was also Ben Brode’s informative AMA, Caverns Below nerf, a silly Lich King ad, and much more. And, of course, plenty of fun and informative videos. Now let’s all try and push July to move faster so August, and the expansion, arrive. Long live the Lich King.

Caverns Below Nerfed in Latest Patch

After torturing players players for too long, Caverns Below has finally been nerfed. The latest patch has made it so you need to bounce 5 minions instead of 4 to trigger the quest, which should be much more reasonable. In addition to the nerf, the latest patch has added the Frozen Throne pre-order to the client. The patch also added the Elemental tag to several cards, a change that should strengthen elemental decks. Check out all the changes here.

The Frozen Throne expansion will be the first one to bring the expansion/adventure change to the game, so Blizzard will be giving free stuff to everyone. According to some HearthPwn datamining, there will be a Frost Festival for at least three weeks, and each week will give you a free Arena run. If you play 3 Arena games, you’ll get a card pack. And, apparently, each player starts each run with a free win. Go here to see what else the datamining discovered.

Lich King Applies for a Blizzard Job

Blizzard continues to up its game when it comes to commercials and promoting the game, and the latest ad is definitely one of the best. Blizzard is looking for people to join the Hearthstone team, so the Lich King decides to apply. And, of course, silliness ensues. Quite a funny commercial that once more shows that Ben Brode should be out there doing comedy.

Ben Brode did an AMA last week, and we got some fun new details about the game and the new expansion. He talked about no console support coming at this time, more details on making more stats available to players coming later this year, how they enjoyed making all the Death Knight Heroes, how Druid and Warlock hero skins are still coming, and much more. He also talked about Ice Block possibly moving out of Standard in the future, and how Stonetusk Board is a card that really limits future card mechanics. There’s a lot more information, so go check it all here.

Flying Around the World and Losing

The writers of this article followed pro player Muzzy as he traveled to the Spring Championship in Shanghai and lost. Muzzy had been doing great this year, with a 10-0 run to become Americas 2017 Spring Champion. So, the writers decided to follow him around and see how it is to travel across the world for a championship and then write in detail about the experience. It’s a fun insight look at how it is to be a pro player and what it means to go in as one of the favorites and lose. Check out the whole story here.

Check Out This Quest Roulette

If you’re tired of playing the game and are looking for new goals to play for, check out HS Roulette, a website that gives you random objectives to complete. There are some fun quests to complete, like only being allowed to damage your opponent using silverhand recruits, building a deck with at least 10 human minions, winning a Hunter match with no minions in your deck, and so on. A great idea for those less into climbing ladders and more into having fun.

Best Part of the Game Is Learning How to Play

This article tries to convince those scared of getting into the game to take the plunge because the best part of the game is learning how to play it. All the fun resources on the internet (all those Trump videos for instance) make learning the game an entertaining endeavor, and because the game doesn’t require mechanical skills, it allows you to start applying those newfound-skills quickly. And the learning experience of the game pays off in a tangible way because you start seeing your skill improving match by match. The article also contains a 7-step method for learning and improving, so check it out.

Client Might Allow Esport In-Game Spectating in the Future

This article argues that because of the casual nature of Hearthstone, its esport streams don’t always attract the viewership one would expect. Apparently, the developers are considering allowing players to spectate select tournaments via an in-game function, something that should boost those streams and better tie together the casual and the esport scene. The "Choose Your Champion" program and moves like better in-game spectating might help strengthen the game’s esport scene.

Vicious Fledgling, the Arena’s terror, is Being Toned Down

Vicious Fledgling has been terrorizing the Arena because of its ability to adapt after attacking a hero, which makes it pure terror if a player can’t remove it fast enough. After the latest patch, though, the card will appear less often and ruin the dreams of fewer players. Specifically, it will appear 50% less often in Arena drafts (Flamestrike and Abyssal Enforcer will share the same fate). Happy with the "nerf," or would you rather have Vicious Fledgling flying around the Arena more often?

Frederik Hoej Nielsen won the Hearthstone Championship in Shanghai, China, beating Kolento 3-0 in the final. He went all aggressive with Pirate Warrior, Evolve Shaman, Murloc Paladin, and Quest Rogue, and even though he had a hard time in the group stage, he won the playoff matches very easily. European players did very well, but Chinese players didn’t do so hot, with all four losing in the group stages. There’s been talk that the format change was communicated to Chinese players much later than other regions, and that delay had an effect on the Chinese players’ performance. Check the whole story for more details.